There’s a certain sumptuousness about a full-length ballet: emotions made physical with elegant gestures, storybook settings and color-keyed costumes. But the Milwaukee Ballet’s Dracula, which is being revived at the Marcus Center this weekend, is pure and delicious Hollywood.
Not that it’s full of cutting edge CGI or buckets of stage blood. But Michael Pink’s way of spinning a tale—with its combination of cinematic stage effects, sweeping narrative and emotionally resonant dance—is all of a piece with the great visual storytelling of Hollywood’s golden age.
Take the opening of Dracula, for example. Jonathan Harker (Timothy O’Donnell in the Friday performance I saw) sleeps restlessly in a simple cot downstage. But the rest of the stage is alive with the stuff of his dreams—projections, lighting effects, multiple stage levels showcasing characters that we’ll eventually see as part of the story. It’s a classic Hollywood montage—all that’s missing is spinning newspapers or calendar pages flipping in the wind.
It’s a magnificent few minutes—testimony to the talents of Pink, set & costume designer Lez Brotherston, and lighting designer David Grill—and it sets the tone for the rest of the production. There are stage-filling ensemble dances: the villagers outside Dracula’s castle conduct a stirring ritual; the guests at a grand hotel waltz and gavotte to their hearts’ content; and the vampire hoards vamp it up down in the catacombs. And the narrative spins along through pantomime. There are dramatic pas de deux, trois and quatre—each enacting a conquest of vampires and victims. Some are writhingly physical and others are plaintively, appropriately simple. It’s no surprise that a ballerina en pointe is the perfect embodiment of entrancement (see Balanchine’s La Sonnambula), so the count’s mesmeric effect on his female victims is perfect for dance.
There are a few moments when the movement feels forced, a bit too stylized for the emotions in play (a trio of men ham it up around the death bed of Lucy), but Dracula is above all a powerful fusion of theater, music and movement. Philip Feeney’s score has a touch of Hollywood about it as well, using screams, chorales and sound effects in addition to sweeping orchestral tutti’s. But from start to finish, Pink’s Dracula feels just right—dramatic, spectacular, and—at the right times—downright chilling.
